How to convert text file to csv in powershell?

Question

I have a text file. Each line record an event and the fields are delimited by '|'. Is it possible using some cmdlet like "get-content event.log | export-csv event.csv" to convert text file to csv file?

xxx(1365)|2016-09-29 06:00:00.0|2016-09-29 06:30:00.0|
bbb(110)|2016-09-29 06:30:00.0|2016-09-29 07:00:00.0|
ccc(5243)|2016-09-29 07:00:00.0|2016-09-29 07:30:00.0|
ddd(1950)|2016-09-29 07:30:00.0|2016-09-29 08:00:00.0|
eee(10)|2016-09-29 08:00:00.0|2016-09-29 09:00:00.0|
fff(464)|2016-09-29 09:00:00.0|2016-09-29 10:00:00.0|
dddd(874)|2016-09-29 10:00:00.0|2016-09-29 11:00:00.0|
ggggg(6)|2016-09-29 11:00:00.0|2016-09-29 12:00:00.0|
kkkk(272)|2016-09-29 12:00:00.0|2016-09-29 12:30:00.0|

Filburt · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-11 23:40:32Z

3

The Import-Csv cmdlet allows you to specify a delimiter

$file = Import-Csv .\event.log -Delimiter '|'

so in your case, it can be as simple as

Import-Csv .\event.log -Delimiter "|" | Export-Csv .\event.csv -NoTypeInformation

edited May 11, 2017 at 23:40

answered May 11, 2017 at 23:27

Filburt

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1 Comment

scrthq Over a year ago

To add to that, if you don't have headers on your text file, you can add them with the -Header parameter, i.e. $file = Import-Csv .\event.log -Delimiter '|' -Header "Name","StartTime","EndTime"

Dai · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-11 23:28:34Z

0

If the file isn't too big (under a few megabytes) you could do it with a straight-forward String.Replace operation:

$content = ( $fileName | Get-Content )
$content = $content -replace '|' ','
$content | Out-File $fileName

Or more succinctly:

( $fileName | Get-Content ) -replace '|' ',' | Out-File $fileName

This won't work very well for large files (more than a few megabytes) because the entire file is loaded into memory as a System.String instance, then the Replace operation will then create a new instance (thus doubling the memory requirement).

A faster version might read from the input file line-by-line and perform the -replace operation for each line - or even character-by-character.

answered May 11, 2017 at 23:28

Dai

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